[governance] Facebook spent $4 million to lobby U.S. lawmakers in 2012

[Roland Perry]

In message <5103C65F.7000404 at gmx.net>, at 19:04:47 on Sat, 26 Jan 2013,
Norbert Klein <nhklein at gmx.net> writes
>>The extent to which money can be used to influence politicians varies
>>in different countries. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_finance
>>for an introduction to how private money is allowed to influence
>>election campaigns in different countries, for example.
>
>"In early 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United
>v. Federal Election Commission that corporate funding of independent
>political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited pursuant to
>the right of these entities to free speech." (Wikipedia)
>
>So corporates in the USA with a lot of resources have the same right to
>free speech like a citizen of the USA has. Legal? So says the Supreme
>Court. Legitimate? A question

That's an example of the different ways democracy is implemented.

Here in the UK, no candidate can spend more than £30,000 on their election
campaign for MP, irrespective of where the funds came from; and a party
can't spend more than £19m nationally in a General Election.

Compare that with the $985m that Obama apparently spent getting re-elected,
and the $992m Romney spent on not getting elected [figures from NY Times].
And I presume these independent broadcasts you mention don't count towards
that total?

Different countries, different rules. Isn't it a matter for each country to
decide how they conduct their political campaigning?
-- 
Roland Perry

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